Freed Tv Journalist Heads Home

February 16, 1985|United Press International.

RHEIN MAIN AIR BASE, WEST GERMANY — American television reporter Jeremy Levin flew to West Germany Friday from Damascus, where Syria turned him over to U.S. Embassy officials after his bold escape from an 11-month kidnap ordeal in Lebanon.

Levin arrived around 5 p.m. EST for a reunion with his wife and family, landing aboard a chartered plane at the U.S. Rhein Main Air Base near Frankfurt, a U.S. Air Force spokesman said.

Levin, weeping and trembling with elation, described his ordeal to reporters in Damascus before leaving the Syrian capital.

Levin, turned over to U.S. Ambassador William Eagleton by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa, said he thought four other Americans kidnapped in Beirut over the past year had been held with him although he never saw them.

``I am very excited,`` Levin, 52, said, weeping and shaking while recounting his ordeal. He was Beirut bureau chief for Cable News Network.

Levin`s jet made brief stopovers in Rhodes, Greece and Rome. A co-worker who saw him in Rome said Levin appeared to be in good condition and was given a wristwatch, newspapers and Italian food.

In Santa Barbara, Calif., White House spokesman Larry Speakes said a doctor saw Levin at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and ``despite the appalling conditions of his confinement,`` his condition appeared to be good.

Speakes` comments came as former boxing champion Muhammad Ali left London for Paris, saying he was going to Beirut for talks Ali said were aimed at gaining the release of the other U.S. hostages.